Just a little pollution will still be too much

Wednesday

Nov 28, 2012 at 2:00 AM

When the mulch started to pile up in Tuxedo and the fish started to die, town officials were not convinced that the two were related. They dismissed allegations by those opposed to the mulching operation as the mutterings of environmental activists, many of them actively opposing the board on other issues to do with development and its effects.

When the mulch started to pile up in Tuxedo and the fish started to die, town officials were not convinced that the two were related. They dismissed allegations by those opposed to the mulching operation as the mutterings of environmental activists, many of them actively opposing the board on other issues to do with development and its effects.

Officials also had little good to say about the state Department of Environmental Conservation and its conclusion that the pile was contributing to the runoff that filled the streams and killed the fish.

Nobody was opposed to the idea of having a firm come in and save the town a bit of money by taking care of the tree limbs and yard waste.

It's the environmentally and economically responsible thing to do as long as it is done correctly. And the officials were clear, or seemed to be, that should somebody come up with a study they could believe, a study that backed up the criticism, the mulch pile would have to go.

Now, they seem to have that study, and it draws a clear line from the mulch pile to the environmental damage. So what are the officials going to do? They are going to scale back the operation. How far? Who knows?

What they need to do is admit that they were wrong all along. They should have believed the evidence that confronted them instead of dismissing it because of other issues in the background that had nothing to do with pollution. And they need to admit that they do not have the expertise to manage this operation, no matter what the size.